Automatic reciprocating-blade hedge trimmers are well-known, but are ill-suited for channeling clippings to an attached receptacle or collection bag.
Rotary trimmers having a motor-driven rotating cutter are also known, and are better suited for channeling clippings to a receptacle, if desired. Such devices are typically configured to have an elongated hand-held housing, a motor contained by the hand-held housing, a drive shaft connected to the motor and mounted at a distal end of the housing for rotation about an axis that is substantially perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the housing, a rotary cutter fixed to the drive shaft for rotation therewith, and a protective shroud or hood mounted on the housing to cover the rotary cutter and define an opening through which vegetation is fed to the cutter. An example of a trimmer of the type described above is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,431 to Leming et al. In the trimmer of Leming et al., the motor is located in a cylindrical housing portion at the distal end of the hand-held housing, and the drive shaft and a surrounding tube, both of which are threaded, extend downward from the cylindrical housing portion. The shroud, which is generally frusto-conical in shape, includes a mounting aperture through a top wall thereof, and the drive shaft and tube are inserted through the mounting aperture to extend into the interior of the shroud. A spring arranged about the tube and a nut threadably mated to the tube releasably clamp the top wall of the shroud against a bottom surface of the cylindrical housing portion, and angularly spaced detents between the top wall of the shroud and the cylindrical housing portion prevent rotation of the shroud relative to the cylindrical housing portion.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,681 discloses a trimmer of the type mentioned above, wherein the shroud includes a rear portion integrally formed with the hand-held motor housing and a complementary front portion having a resilient collar for snap-fitting to the hand-held housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,082 provides a further example of a trimmer construction of the prior art.
As a final example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,253 discloses a hand-held rotary trimmer comprising a handle 5 which houses a motor drive, a rotary cutter (rotary 11 and blades 9) powered by the motor drive, and a shroud (hood 2) mounted at a distal end of the handle/housing to cover the rotary cutter for operator safety. The shroud includes an annular protective ridge 10 about a bottom opening in the shroud and an expulsion duct (connector 12) extending tangentially to a rotational direction of the cutter for delivering clippings or trimmings to a collection bag connected to the expulsion duct. In the embodiment described, the collection bag is supported by means of a strap over the user's shoulder. The shroud (hood 2) is depicted as a one-piece unit, which makes it difficult to remove to install a new rotary cutter or to clean the interior of the shroud or expulsion duct if clogs develop.